Historical Sims and Boardgames

Siege of Jerusalem Interphase 1.

Situation at the end of 7 standard daylight turns in the Siege for Jerusalem.

So…. we got started. We had fun. We found some quibbles. Is it a good game? Yes.

The Romans lost 296 VPs. As an aside teh Jews took 271 CF losses plus arty losses. Titus was almost killed twice! The Western wall took the highest casualties, with the East losing 116 factors.

Now game play and what happened. It takes time to play this game, we really thought with 3 we could crank 2 Interphases off. Not so.

In the West the Romans approached cautiously and took 2 turns to really get cranking. In this time I as the Judean realized that Militia on a wall in New City is BAD….Ouch.

I quickly re formatted my defense in turn 1 and 2. Stacking where possible in bastion and fortress 1 or 2 Regulars (Archer-Fighter types) and some Militia, usually with at least a Cauldron.

Missile fire was ineffective for me for 2 turns. Then escalades where deployed in the West and units came out of Testudo…. In one turn 4-6 units (cohorts were eliminated from the X and IX Legions

In the Eastern end of the map I did not fare so well. A quick advance to the wall saw Towers erected and ramming begin. By Turn 3 the first Breach was up and 2 Roman units were on the wall including Titus. Which proved a distraction. I kept trying to kill Titus, in stead of preventing reinforcement. The Roman players wer doing excellent jobs as we all sorted thru the rules together. We messed up stacking in the open for the Jews. we missed some missile combat bonus, we failed to do some mandatory retreating.

It was all good.

There is never a reason NOT to ATTACK in Melee. if a 6 will git ya sum. Then git it….

Sigh. That was very annoying. Seeing 1-2 /1-3 attacks with +2 or more eliminating units on a 6. The ‘momentum rules, for continuation were also brutal but made perfect sense. I think we got those right.

As the game progressed of course more breaches formed, more cohorts on the wall and the loss pile grew.

It was hard to feel like you were doing well on either side.

Once I fully understood that 90 % of the units would return, I fought with gay abandon. However there comes a point when just one sally would of been awesome. I restrained myself.

Fatigue began to set in after lunch (we started rolling dice at 9.30 by the time I got setup.) We wrapped at 6pm.

The rhythm of the game starts to hit you quickly. As the Judean you Rally your guys…. They all get shot at. You shoot with what is left, then move and melee. Rinse Repeat.

The Western walls start to collapse

This would make an excellent Solo game with some custom randomization rules for which areas to attack. not sure I could do a lot of these game plays tho. Each little city no doubt presents the nice tactical puzzle with some unknowns vis a vie Arty.

Around turn 5 it became tenuous for the Jews. Zealots were dying, holes were being plugged with reduced units and it became hard to get good shoots on Romans with the missile phase. Side by side breaches were happening in the Eastern half of the map. You could not attack the breaches as you were 1/2 on attack.. WTF…?

Turn 6, we are weaker and thinner. It would appear we will not hold the New City..like duh what was I thinking?